Haiku Windows: spaceship window

Haiku Windows

In the book Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem, editors Yamaguchi and Brooks quote David Lanoue: “A haiku is a window”…

In the following weeks we will look at (or through?) the many possibilities raised by this thought – and you’re invited to join in the fun! Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence. I will select from these for the column, and add commentary.

next week’s theme: window-shop

It doesn’t cost anything to look – so go ahead – look through those shop windows, and write without actually spending any money…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

Haiku Windows: spaceship window

The response to ‘Haiku Windows’ has been phenomenal, and for that I am grateful. I have a handful of windows left up my sleeve, and then, starting in July, this column will take off in a new direction… it is my hope that the many faithful readers and writers will join me for the ride… in the meantime, here is some otherworldly poetry:

spaceship window I dream in blue and green

Angelee Deodhar

This brief one-line poem sums up so much of what we know, feel and imagine about the world of space travel, from actual news footage, to movies, to our own imaginations… once again, so much is said and so much is left unsaid…

spaceship window
I wipe my space glasses
with my space tie

Garry Eaton

Many submissions this week appeal through humour – and sometimes it takes some thought to figure out why something is funny… in this case, the described behaviour in an imaginary scenario is normalized – presumably, humans are humans wherever they go…

space station meeting room
the window washer
floats by

Terri French

A previous theme reappears – notice how many details are left to our imagination in this poem, and yet how complete the picture is that we as readers create for it…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

string theory
through spaceship window
I see their songs

Akua LEZLI Hope

bulletproof glass
every astronaut tested
for their caliber

Alan Summers
England

everywhere
nowhere
spaceship window

Amy Losak

starship window
my reflection
unchanged

Ann K. Schwader
Westminster, CO USA

interstellar flight
someone knocks
on the window

Ardelle Hollis Ray
Las Vegas, NV

cardboard spaceship –
making fish lips at my son
through the window

Chad Lee Robinson

just remember
it’s all a simulation
spaceship window

Charles Harmon
Los Angeles, California, USA

wish upon a star in
one quick breath
spaceship window

Christina Chin
Kuching, Sarawak

deep space
nothing to see
but darkness

Christina Sng

spaceship window
a floating man
looking back at me

Christine Eales
UK

reaching to touch
the star I wish upon
spaceship window

Claire Vogel Camargo

spaceship window –
all these years spent
in isolation

Claudia Messelodi
Italy

spaceship window…
the Milkyway
embraces me

ruimteschip raam –
de Melkweg
omarmt mij

(Dutch translation)

Corine Timmer

spaceship window –
his vacuous look
when we argue

D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Hawai’i

spaceship window
balancing the earth
on my pinkie

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

spaceship window
the void between your world
and mine

Deborah P Kolodji
Temple City, California

spaceship window
a tiny star crosses
Saturn’s rings

Eufemia Griffo

floating
at the spaceship window
the dark side of moon

Giovanna Restuccia
Italy

space shuttle window
volcanic plumes
from my home state

Greer Woodward
Kamuela, HI

spaceship window
one galaxy
to another

Guliz Mutlu

sun glints
on the spaceship window
summer solstice

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

fragile marble –
our Earthly paradise
from my spaceship window

Ingrid Baluchi
Uganda

new arrival
welcoming waves from the
space station window

Karen Conrads Wibell

this path of stars
my universe was once
a lawn of daisies

Karen Hoy
Wales/England

planet earth
through a spaceship window
déjà vu

Kath Abela Wilson
Pasadena California

capsule window
a forefinger & thumb
around the earth

Ken Olson
Yakima WA US

is that a blue world
floating in the depths of space
or a dream of home?

Laurence Raphael Brothers
Waltham, Massachusetts USA

space mission
i wave goodbye
to myself

LPConvey
Brisbane Australia

lost in the universe
the Milky Way leads me
home

Lucia Fontana
Milan, Italy

a handprint
on the other side of the glass
spaceship window

Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK

floating past
in his tin can…
Major Tom

Madhuri Pillai

our blue marble
hanging there…
spaceship window

Marilyn Appl Walker

starship window –
looks like Orion
has put on some weight

Mark Gilbert
UK

warp speed…
not one bug
on the windshield

Mary Hanrahan

solar eclipse
a brief aside through
the space station window

Michael Henry Lee

Martian
spaceship windows…
for sale by owner

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

a neighborly wave
to a passing star
space ship window

Michael Stinson

space orbiter –
earth rise in the window
between the stars

Michele L. Harvey

spaceship window
a tapestry of
stars

Mohammad Azim Khan

space window
he sees the earth
rising

Nancy Brady

spaceship portholes –
whatever way you look
infinity

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

in the museum
spaceship windows
surprisingly small

N.E. Taylor
Los Angeles, CA

the stars’
variations in brightness
zero gravity

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

by the spaceship window
I cup my hands
around Earth

Pat Davis

blank
spaceship window
at warp speed

Paul Geiger

spaceship window
staring into
my insignificance

Peter Jastermsky

reruns…
a view into other worlds
through captain kirk

Pris Campbell

long haul flight
counting stars
through the spaceship window

Rachel Sutcliffe

open skylight
the whole sky
home

Radostina Dragostinova

earth rise
over the moon’s horizon
an astronaut tries a rhyme

Randy Brooks

beyond the stars
infinity
through spaceship window

Rehn Kovacic

spaceship window –
behind the clouds
a winged horse

Réka Nyitrai

starship window
a red-haired teacher
cradles the moon

(In Memory Christa McAuliffe)

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

mission to mars
our tiny planet glows
in the spaceship window

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

spaceship window –
an endless trail
of bright stars

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

satellite window
looking down at the earth
in awe

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

view from the spaceship
the moon lights
the dew on the fields

Serhiy Shpychenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

window view
megaparsecs
dusted with stars

Simon Hanson

full moon
with American flag
on the left cheek

Slobodan Pupovac
Zagreb, Croatia

no turning back
now
spaceship window

Susan Rogers
Los Angeles, CA, USA

roles reversed –
the Earth our moon
outside my spaceship window

Tammie Baluch
Uganda

spaceship window…
look at the worried face of
my guardian angel

Tomislav Maretic

in spaceship window
light signs from Japan –
obon holidays

Tsanka Shishkova

TARDIS window…
the ever-changing face
of Doctor Who

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

NASA trip
he asks if he can see the star
his mom became

Vandana Parashar

spaceship window
yearning for a home
I never knew

Yvette Nicole Kolodji
Encino, CA

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.

I love the spookiness of this one:
.
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a handprint
on the other side of the glass
spaceship window
.
Lucy Whitehead
Essex, UK
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I can imagine it both as a science fiction angle, but also by accident or prank, someone pre-launch managing to leave one, and surviving Earth exit. 🙂

How apropo! I don’t think your timing with this window prompt could have been any better. Our NASA lady astronaut lifted into space yesterday with two other astronauts aboard a Russian Soyuz Space Craft. They were heading to the International Space Station and due to arrive on Friday.
Her name is Serena Aunon-Chancellor. I saw her on the news this morning. 😉

Thank you for including one of my spaceship window haiku. I particularly appreciate the haiku by Terri French, Alan Summers, Deb Kolodji and Vandana Parashar. This week’s selections offer a view into outer and inner space it seems to me.

Thanks Sari! 🙂
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I had a lot of fun researching about more current aspects of space travel, and how tough spacesuits are now, compared to the days of the moon landings.
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“one manufacturer of aluminum oxynitride bulletproofing products said 1.6 inches of AlON was sufficient to completely stop an armor-piercing .50 calibre round.”
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Wow! And with Mars so hostile, it’s vital, because of those dust storms and high velocity winds.
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warm regards,
Alan
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P.S.
I wish we could all watch our planet from space, once in our lifetime, and realise we are all very lucky.

Thanks Corine! 🙂
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Karen is away in Texas, so I’ll thank you for her.
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I could relate to your poem, as once living in Queensland for a few years, the night sky is clean of light pollution, and once while driving, I really thought I’d have my car be embraced.
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Alan

Whereas Arsene Hollis Ray’s ‘interstellar flight / someone knocks / on the window’ could be the starting point for a science fiction novel ….

And I loved these two which swirled around between the future and the past – Karen Hoy’s ‘this path of stars /my universe was once / a lawn of daisies’ and Mohammed Azim Khan’s ‘spaceship window / a tapestry of / stars’. Thanks all.

Thanks for standing in! 🙂
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And many thanks for enjoying Karen’s haiku! She spends so much time on TV documentary treatment writing, or working on our courses, that I was chuffed she knuckled down to this prompt! 🙂
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warm regards,
Alan